To follow and live...

Several months ago, Sharon gave me this phrase, "follow and live," as a response to my questions about what to do in a confusing and ambiguous set of circumstances I face. These words struck me with the force of a ten pound hammer to the heart, and I have repeated them to myself often when I needed to strike a match in a particularly dark tunnel.

My recent meditations on words, though, made me think again about this phrase: how deeply do I really understand it? Perhaps the strength that it has had in my life is only a fraction of the power that it might have if I would only do the work to penetrate it more deeply? When Sharon asked her question about words and meaning this week, I knew that this was exactly the invitation to explore the meaning of this phrase, to make a commitment to it, to follow it where it might lead.

About a year and a half ago, something quite dramatic happened to me that pulled me up short and made me realize how little I understand the way in which Fr. Giussani uses the word, "freedom." Such was my need to discover what he means by "freedom," that I looked the word up in the index of each of his books that we own, copied out all the passages in which he uses "freedom," and then read them and reread them with attention. This work, that was undertaken to address an urgent question in my life at the time, was so fruitful for me, in so many unexpected ways! And so, I decided to use the same method with the word, "follow;" but alas (!) this word is not indexed in any of my books! This problem, in turn, forced me to search for other words that I thought might be related to following, and I chose "adhering," "authority," and "obedience." The work of slowly reading each book, to find the word "following," will have to wait for another time.

One thing that impresses me about the word "follow" is how Christ uses it in the parable of the good shepherd in the Gospel of John. "The good shepherd calls his sheep by name... and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger...I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep..." (John 10). This mutual knowing that Jesus describes is far deeper than what we usually take for knowledge; in the Bible, when two people know each other, such is the fecundity of the relationship that it ordinarily gives rise to a new life. Father Giussani makes a reference to this phenomenon of God calling by name:

When God turns to man to ask something of him, the Bible describes the dialogue with sublime simplicity. God calls by name, which is the sign of the person as a unique and free individual; and the person's adherence is free and unique: 'here I am!' In Christianity, the only thing that matters is the value of the person, because everything else depends on this; and the value of the person is measured by that free adherence... Perhaps the most understandable and clearest moment for us is the figure of the Blessed Virgin. 'Ave Maria -- Fiat': In the impenetrable free intimacy of this gesture of offering and acceptance lies the cornerstone of God's mysterious encounter with the human person. (Journey to Truth..., 15)

There is a fundamental connection between first being called, then knowing the Voice of the One who is calling, and then following/adhering. And what strikes me now, as I think again about Christ's words about the good shepherd, is that this movement -- calling by name, knowing, following -- leads to a new call: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. There was no greater sign of adhesion to humanity that Christ's free offering of himself on the cross; but in the phrase, "lay down my life for...," is also contained the sense of giving one's whole life, including the living portion. Christ not only poured himself out for us through his death, but also through his Incarnation and later through his continued Presence with us now, through the gift of the Spirit. His whole life has been laid down for us, and this gift of himself poses the strongest call and invitation we can receive. In front of such a gift, we must be moved! Adherence and following flow from the recognition of Who is calling us and also from the recognition of the precise nature of the call.

So many times, during preparation for First Holy Communion, I have read the parable of the true vine with groups of children. What always strikes us is the number of times Christ uses the word "abide" or "remain" (depending on your translation). Jesus is so urgent on this point! Fr. Giussani's understanding of adherence gains new depth, when it is placed beside the parable of the true vine:

Personal Adherence: Our duty is to make ours all those things with which God lavishes His generous and deep love upon us. This is precisely how our personality develops, and this is called 'work.' This is all the more so when we are dealing with live and spiritual beings. We are called to discover their presence, to accept their person, to make their reality a part of ours; in a word, we are called to 'share' in their existence and ours, to 'share our life' (convivere) with them. This is the 'work' through which our personality becomes completely mature. It is called love. (Journey to Truth..., 25)

Christ's urgent invitation is to "remain in [his] love..." and he compares our remaining in him to his own remaining in the Father, who remains also in him. Then he gives us the "new" commandment: that we love one another as he has loved us.

Here is one other passage from Fr. Giussani on adherence:

We must live this Reality [the mystery of the visible Church], commit ourselves wholly to it; that is enter it and compare all its movements, motives, and directives with the ultimate needs of our humanity. And insofar as we discover that those suggestions, those directives, those initiatives respond to our authentic human needs and help us to understand them, our adherence and conviction will be deep and definitive. So it is not a matter of studying theology or forming a group, it involves everything, all of life, because the proposal comes to us and meets us as a new life. To be 'convinced' means that the totality of our 'I' is bound to something: thus shall we all be bound to that Reality. That Reality will become us and we shall sense that we are that Reality...Whoever does not undergo this verification process will remain a Christian, but have nothing new to say, or else will simply leave. (Journey to Truth..., 98)

In love, if we bind ourselves in love, if we adhere to Reality in love, "That Reality will become us and we shall sense that we are that Reality." This seems to me to be the essence of what it means to "follow and live."

«Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.» Mark 13:31

Obedience and authority in Luigi Giussani's trilogy

I was fascinated to discover that neither "obedience" nor "authority" appear in the index to The Religious Sense! What can it mean? I can only imagine that adhering to authority and living in obedience are not for rank beginners!

Again, it is very interesting to note that "authority" does not occur in the index to At the Origin of the Christian Claim, and "obedience" makes its first appearance, but only shows up twice in this book. In the first instance, Fr. Giussani is recounting a dramatic event, recorded in chapter 8 of the Gospel of John. Jesus has been confronted by the Pharisees, who press him to explain who he claims to be. Jesus responds, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is your God. But you have not known him; I know him. If I said, I do not know him, I should be a liar like you; but I do know him and I keep his word" (John 8:54-55). Fr. Giussani doesn't refer directly to Jesus' obedience, but quotes from the work of two scholars, R. Schnackenburg and H.U. von Balthasar, who use this word to characterize Jesus' attitude. Balthasar comments, "the attack on Jesus' arrogance collapses on his obedience" (The Glory of the Lord, page 478). The only time in At the Origin of the Christian Claim when Fr. Giussani uses the word "obedience" himself comes toward the end of the book, in a discussion of the value of the human person. He characterizes Jesus as demonstrating, "a passion for the individual, an urgent desire for his happiness." Jesus expresses, "The problem of the world's existence is the happiness of each single person. 'For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?' (Matthew 16:26)" (page 84, in At the Origin...). Fr. Giussani concludes, "No force of energy and no paternal or maternal loving tenderness has ever impacted the heart of man more than these words of Christ, impassioned as he is about the life of man. Moreover, to listen to these radical questions Jesus poses, represents the first obedience to our own natures" (page 84, emphasis mine). Thus, even before introducing the idea of obedience to authority, Fr. Giussani first stresses Christ's own obedience to the Father, and with even greater emphasis, our need to be obedient to our own natures and irreducible value. I think these points are fundamental, and cannot be skipped over or forgotten. This type of obedience is an essential step; without it, we are not capable of obedience to authority.

Can you guess where Fr. Giussani first begins to speak about authority? Not until we are a good three quarters of the way into Why the Church? do we find a discussion of the subject. Authority, Fr. Giussani stresses, is a function of the life of the community: "The supreme authority of the magisterium is an explication of the conscience of the entire community as guided by Christ. It is not some magical, despotic substitution for it" (page 172). Then he goes on to discuss the Church's teaching authority, pointing out that even in the case of the dogmas that seem to have come down from "on high," in fact, in every case (The Assumption, The Immaculate Conception, papal infallibility), they are the fruit of the whole community; debated, voted upon, and tested, these dogmas were not proclaimed until the popes had come to the firm conclusion that the entire community's conscience had been sounded. Fr. Giussani observes, "Clearly, then, the vast majority of people have no idea of the Church's procedure leading to the proclamation of a dogma, never mind comprehending the meaning of the expression. But, as we have seen, it defines a value when that value has become a sure and living part of the conscience of the Christian community" (page 174). In other words, the Church's teaching authority derives from its unity (and consistency). This is a very different picture from the one conjured by the term, "authoritarian." Then, in the final chapter of Why the Church? Fr Giussani returns to the question of authority. If the Church's catholicity, that is its universality and unity, is a sign of its authority within space, then her apostolicity "is the characteristic of the Church which signified its capacity to address time in a unitary, structured way" (page 230). Then he says something that is really worth pausing over: "...Just as Christ's will was to bind his work and his presence in the world to the apostles and in doing so he indicated one of them as the authoritative point of reference, so, too, is the Church bound to Peter's and the apostles' successors -- the pope and his bishops" (230). Jesus stooped to bind his work and presence to particular persons (colorful, even sometimes idiotic persons!), and the Body of Christ makes the same gesture, in obedience to its own nature. There is a beautiful and audacious symmetry in this thought! For the Body of Christ to fill time and space, in order to be truly "all in all," then it teaches what is true for all (preserving its catholicity/universality) and it remains faithful to Christ's original method, to bind itself to a particular succession of persons, who become its authoritative point of reference (preserving its definitive presence in time). The concept of obedience to the Church also makes a brief appearance in this book on page 86 and is worth quoting at length:

Christians are often far from aware of this authentic source of their value, for we frequently find people who are either seeking clarity and security or a motive for their actions, and in so doing, they interpret their own community, or movement, or special association in a reductive way, depriving themselves of the source of unity that gives them life -- the mystery of the Church as Church. Or, there are those who in referring to the Church, mean a mechanical super-organism unrelated to their daily reality, the concrete community close to them. In this way, then they incorrectly separate themselves from the living Church. This is why one must learn what the total Church is, and this is why we must explore the depths of the ecclesiastical experience one has encountered, providing that is has all the characteristics of a true ecclesiastical experience. This means obedience to the total Church, depending on it, organizing one's life according to its rhythms, seeing oneself reflected in the other factors within the sphere of the Christian life. These are aspects which define the validity of gathering together...

We have thus demonstrated how reflection on the word "ecclesia" has helped us to understand the type of consciousness of the first Christians of the value of their community, a value which derived totally, entirely from participation in the one Church, the Church governed by the apostles. (pages 86-87, emphasis mine)

Far from recommending "blind obedience," Fr. Giussani is urging us to adhere to "the total Church" in order to assure that our gatherings are invested with the life of Christ.

the words we use are secular words

01-03-2007 - Traces, n. 3

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Editorial

The Pope’s Challenge and Our Responsibility

Some time ago, the well-known editor of an Italian daily informed a large audience that it was quite some time that something had changed in what they, the journalists (and, along with them, intellectuals and opinion leaders), call “Catholicism.” As a clear sign of this rather recent phenomenon of change in the Church, he noted that for the first time a Pope, in an encyclical letter, had used the word “Event” to describe the nature and originality of the Christian fact. He saw this as a warning light. Now, there is nothing new in the concept of Christianity as an historical event–it pertains to the whole of Church history – but the use of this word particularly aroused this editor’s curiosity.

To tell the truth, Benedict XVI’s use of certain words is astounding many people–just read the authoritative writers published in this issue of Traces: Riotta, Allam, Reale, Borgna, Albacete and Lenoci – and is worrying others who hear him. The Pope is speaking of the heart, of love, of reason, of education, of dialogue. He is speaking of “secular” matters, instead of concerning himself with faith and religion, which is, after all, his field of competence. Instead, he dares to use the words that thinkers and ideologies hostile to Christianity claim as their own, and on questions into which Christians, not to mention the Pope, have no right to poke their noses; these are the words of modernity, which interest modern man.

By excluding the Church from the use of these terms and from the debate on the questions linked to them, they want to present the Church as an antique curiosity that can have nothing useful to say about present-day life – but they are wrong, because the Church has always addressed herself to what interests man of all ages, to that which the Pope called the “heart.”

In taking up the challenge of modernity and, as it were, throwing it back, Benedict XVI has used those forbidden words but, above all, he has re-examined them and re-proposed them in their original meaning. He has thrown out a loftier and more loving challenge, and we Christians are the first at whom the challenge is aimed. Look at your own experience and see if the meaning of those words is more open and deeper in light of a familiarity of life with Christ. It is a challenge to love man’s freedom to the end, as Christ did, entrusting yourself to this freedom in order to see if the most important message that can reach us is true – that there is something that survives amidst all this confusion, that life is not empty, that there is a Father who wanted you and is waiting for you, and that what you love will not be lost.

What a responsibility – and what a change – for Christians, immersed like everyone else in a world that has erased certain words from its dictionary, declaring them impossible to live. To take up the Pope’s challenge doesn’t mean merely to repeat his words, it means above all to document the truth of those words – what is the essence of Christianity. “Christ gives flesh and blood to concepts–an unheard-of realism” (Deus Caritas Est); it means to demonstrate that it is possible to live like this, because if men don’t see, they don’t believe it. They can be attracted only by a change that they see in the lives of men like themselves. So our responsibility before the world is called “witness.”

Destiny

Fr. Giussani was always listening to how people used words and would correct them if they used words in a careless or forgetful way. He always said that simplicity is to call a spade a spade.

Here's an example from the book Is it Possible To Live this Way? A girl mentions that her boyfriend's tumor is a "destiny" that contradicts his desire to live. Fr. Giussani insists that destiny is more than the circumstances that confront us:

«To say "I am sick; I have to die, nevertheless I'd like to live, my destiny would be to live." To say "My destiny would be to live, but I have to die because I have tuberculosis; I have cancer and I have to die" isn't reasoning: it's a psychological giving in, a giving in to weakness. If your destiny tells you "I am made for life," this means that this is stronger and will prevail, prevail over the fact that you, in the circumstances that you are in, must die. It means that there is something else or another position; if there weren't another position, something else for which destiny triumphs, then all is destined to become nothing. Everything is destined to become nothing: dust inside a tomb, a mummy dried inside a prison for thirty thousand years.

If Christ called us to this path, it's so that we, in the midst of people, may have the ability to carry out this task: shout to everyone the true reason (the true reason is the destiny inherent in our nature) and therefore, to help people's hope, without which people become violent toward others, lazy in their work (they no longer want to work), and untruthful in front of true things.»

(Is It Possible To Live This Way? 112-113).

Destiny is the promise of eternal life. Now this destiny, to be sure, comes to meet us even in our circumstances - no circumstances may prevent it from arriving - but the difference is that a man may live fully every moment in the shadow of death and die in the hope of the resurrection and eternal life.

Words and Meaning

Suzanne wrote a great post at her blog titled "Words, Words, Words". She describes her exasperation with words used as jargon and her understanding that we have to mouth these over and over to start to get them through our thick heads. Frustration over the meaning of words, used differently than we're used to, or just new words, is common at School of Community. She quoted Father Giussani:

We'll have you repeat words heard as discourse or words spoken as prayer that you don't understand. Not because we're fools and we make you do things that you don't understand. We know that you don't understand them. We didn't understand them either when we were young like you. Yet it's only by repeating them that you understand. What a two-year-old calls "mama" he'll refer to by the same word when he is fifty. That same word, not another word, will be profoundly different, understood more deeply, loved more deeply, judged more deeply ... but still one he has repeated his whole life long. The method we use to go to God is like this. This is how we come to terms with Christ.

I thought it might be an interesting challenge for us to pick up a word we use often in the movement, which is used differently from common parlance, and take a look at it. The word "freedom" is always a tough one for me, because it is such a big concept in the common mentality and very different from our Christian understanding. We have a lot of expressions about freedom which aren't. Besides, we're working on it now in School of Community. I will put something up this week on "freedom."